


everything and nothing

by Nyxierose



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Morning After, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 13:52:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15414351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyxierose/pseuds/Nyxierose
Summary: "He still does not deserve her, but at least he won’t knowingly break her."





	everything and nothing

She’s still there in the morning.

He’s not sure why he thought she _wouldn’t_  be, exactly, but the fear crossed his mind for the heartbeat before he felt her body next to his. Still there, still asleep, still curled up against his side like she belongs there.

(She doesn’t. Not really. She’s too good for him, and he’s well aware of this detail. But she’s here anyways, and he’s not sure what he’s supposed to do with that.)

All he can right this moment is stay put, watch, adore. She is not at all fragile, but he can understand how someone else might make that mistake. There’s so much more strength in her than people see, mixed in with the beauty of her, and-

Lucy makes a soft purring noise and her eyes flutter open. She, too, seems just a little bit surprised by the current state of things. She masks it better, though, shifts her position enough to kiss his cheek and does that thing where she thinks she can convince just about anybody that she is _fine_ even though she knows damn well he’s immune to her power.

“So that happened,” she murmurs, as if the fact that they’re both naked under a blanket pile isn’t obvious enough.

“Are you alright?” He cannot, will not deal with this the way he wants to. For all he knows - an unlikely option, but more than plausible in his panicked mind - she might be very averse to the idea of him holding her again, she might-

“Overwhelmed. But it’ll go away. Not... not your fault.”

"Then what is it?”

“You actually _like_  me. And I obviously knew that before... this. But it seems like you still like me after. And I’m not sure...”

“Shhh.” They’re already curled up around each other, he justifies it. Wrapping his arms around her and pulling her a little more on top of him is not _that_  forward of a gesture. “I know, I know...”

It’s weird for him too, he wants to say. The past five years of his life, past three of hers, the hellfire they’ve both walked through (so much of it was his conscious fault) that turned them into the people they need to be for this to work. And it will work, he is somehow absolutely certain of that. They will stay as they have been, stable enough to withstand so much, and the fact that they have crossed physical lines does not alter anything at all.

On some level, fine, it changes everything. He spent years uncertain if he could ever lie with another person after what happened to the last one (he knows it’s callous to say like that but it’s not _wrong_ ), and then she happened. Beautiful and determined and desperate to be seen, and even on the worst days he knew exactly what she was and exactly what she was capable of. He suspects he’s been the only person she’s ever had in her life who has never underestimated her.

And she repaid that, in her way. She gave him chances, gave him trust when it wasn’t quite earned, fought to see humanity in him when he couldn’t see it in himself. That was what made him fall, that is what makes him want forever with her, that is-

“Is this... do you... could this ever, maybe... happen again?”

Fragile, he thinks again. She _isn’t_ , but she could be in the wrong hands. He still does not deserve her, but at least he won’t knowingly break her.

“If you want,” he replies. This is no time for a confession of love or admiration or _anything_ really, and he’s not going to complete the cliché that thoroughly, and-

“Do _you_  want it? That’s what I...”

Shit, she’s crying. Not his fault, she did say that, more like she’s spent half her life chasing after people who didn’t know how to worship her and it always ended badly and-

“Yes.”

It is not the beautiful complicated declaration she probably deserves, but it is enough. She softens, leans down and kisses him properly, and he thinks she understands now.

This changes everything. This changes nothing.

“Okay.”


End file.
